Duelling
by Beckintime
Summary: Short submissions for the houses competition round 10 Ron Vs Malfoy


**A/N: this is my short submission for round 10 of the houses competition.**

 **House: Ravenclaw**

 **Category: Short**

 **Prompt: Duelling**

 **Word count: 1284**

Harry and I stood, waiting for divination, at the top of the stairwell. Draco Malfoy, hair slicked back, strode up to Harry, shouldering past him. "I'd be careful, _Potter,_ " he said, spitting Harry's surname. "Umbridge is onto you." He smirked evilly, awaiting a response. I felt my heart momentarily freeze. Did Umbridge know about the DA? _Crap._

Harry, to give him his credit, acted like he knew nothing about what the other boy was saying. "She knows what?"

"Why you, the Mudblood, and Weasel over here," he said, looking over at me distastefully, "go to the seventh floor all the time."

My blood boiled at the insults. "Why's that any of your business, Malfoy?"

The sneer on his face seemed to grow as he said, "Well, the Inquisitorial Squad has a right to know these things, Weasley."

"The what now?" Harry asked.

"The Inquisitorial Squad. A select group of students who are supportive of the Ministry of Magic, hand-picked by Professor Umbridge _herself_." he said, head held so high with pride, I thought (and hoped) he may get permanent neck damage.

I laughed. "you've got to be bloody kidding me right, is this serious?"

"That's ten points from Gryffindor for swearing." Draco grinned devilishly as I started to protest. "Now-now, none of that, I know prefects can't dock points but members of the Inquisitorial squad can, so pipe down now."

I was fuming, teeth gritted and fists clenched. I burned holes with my eyes into the boy in front of me.

"Come off it, you can't be serious!" Harry yelled exasperated.

"That's another ten points from Gryffindor, Potter, for disturbance in the hallway. Where is that buffoon, Trelawney anyway?" Draco said to Crabbe, shifting his attention from Harry and I as we just stood there, glaring silently.

This abuse of power continued for another couple of days, each time building and building on my anger and frustration, all of which was directed at Draco Malfoy.

Lessons had finished at Hogwarts for the day, and Harry, Hermione and myself walked outside by the lake, basking in the glory of the golden sun.

In her hands, Hermione held a copy of a book called _Moby Dick_.

It was then that Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle strutted up to us, pointed at the book in Hermione's hands and said, "Stop right there, Mudblood. By the Educational Decree number forty-six you should not be in possession of that book. fifty points from Gryffindor."

"What? by Merlin's beard, this is ridiculous!" Hermione said exasperated. "We can't even move without being harassed by you for one reason or another!"

Harry, a bit more controlled, yet still rolling his eyes said, "Okay, we didn't know about the new rule, let us through, it'll go back to the library or something and won't come back out again."

"No." Draco said simply. "Give it to me, all confiscated items need to go to Professor Umbridge." He held out his hand expectantly.

I watched as Hermione reluctantly handed it over and seeing the dejected look on her face, something within me snapped.

"Lay off her alright, Malfoy? What's the girl ever done to you, eh?"

"That's ten points, Weasley, for being disrespectful. Anyway, so what? What are you going to do about it."

"I challenge you to a Duel. Monday night, by the Quidditch pitch." The words tumbled furiously out of my mouth before I had the chance to stop them.

 _Crap._ I regretted it as soon as I had said it. I expected Gryffindor to be in minus figures for points by the time Malfoy was finished with me, but to my surprise, he just laughed and said, "Okay Weasley, you're on."

What had I gotten myself into?

And so that's why I was here, with Harry at my side, repeating all the jinxes and hexes he knew, as I breathed repeatedly into a brown paper bag in the Quidditch changing rooms.

"I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that doing that does more harm than good," Hermione said, walking through the door, one eyebrow raised.

I took the paper bag from my mouth embarrassed. "Hermione, this is the _boys_ changing rooms."

She shrugged,"Just remember what we practised and you should be fine." With that she walked out, not before pausing at the door, though, and turning back round to face me briefly. she smirked slightly. "Go get him, Ron."

Draco Malfoy stood ahead of me, his wand brandished tightly in his hand, eyes glinting maliciously. To his left, about ten feet away were Crabbe and Goyle, watching me like vultures.

To my left, Harry and Hermione looked on, I could feel their anxiety emanate off of them, or maybe it was just my own.

"Come on Weasley," Draco said cockily. "Let's bow and get this over with."

I took a shaky step forward, Malfoy mirroring my movements. What was I thinking, getting into this?

I gulped and inclined my head slightly as Malfoy did the same.

As quick as a flash, Draco shot his arm forward, as did I.

"Melofors!" Cried Draco as I retaliated with "Flipendo!"

Draco's Jinx hit me before mine did, and suddenly, all I could see was black. I could hear Crabbe and Goyle laugh as I tried to pull the pumpkin from my head. I smashed it open with the back of my wand and pulled it off.

After clearing my eyes from the pumpkin, I could see Malfoy's spell wasn't the only one to have hit. He was also just getting back to his feet, furious.

Teeth gritted, he yelled, "Oppungo!" and a load of inert bludger balls to one side sprung to life. Seeing what he was doing, while still wiping pumpkin from my face, I darted to one side and flung a counter-jinx at him and the bludgers dropped to the floor, once again, inert. I then followed it up with with, "Expelliarmus!"

It hit him, and his wand flew out of his hand: looking at his now empty hand and then back at me, Draco shook his head, abandoned his wand, as well as the rules of duelling, and lunged directly for me, Crabbe and Goyle hot on his heels.

I heard the protests of Harry and Hermione as Malfoy slogged me hard in the face. My head shot back. As it came up I was ready for an attack of my own, only to see Harry had got there first, elbowing Malfoy hard in the face. Crabbe and Goyle rugby tackled both Harry and I into Draco and we all crashed to the ground.

Hermione was shouting for us to stop from the sidelines, but she was quickly drowned out by the noises of pain from the dog pile that I had found myself at the centre of.

It was a total mess of punches, knees, elbows, and kicks; some missing but in such close quarters most hit. An elbow caught me in the nose, and I'm pretty sure I felt it break. I returned it with a knee and heard a grunt of pain in response.

Suddenly, the words "Petrificus Totalus!" were screamed three times, and the attackers stopped attacking and just froze.

Harry and I quickly extracted ourselves from the other boys, and they fell to the floor, still. I took a minute to regain my breath and composure, while holding my broken nose aloft, trying to stop the blood that flew out of it. Harry, next to me, held his ribs painfully with a black eye already making an appearance.

Still running off the adrenaline of the fight, the realisation and fear of the consequences of what we had just done not settling in yet, I asked, "Couldn't have done that a bit sooner, eh?"

Hermione, now ashen-faced, with her wand still raised, replied with,"Oh God, we're in so much trouble."


End file.
